1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electrical connectors and more particularly to electrical connectors used to interconnect electronic assemblies, for example, printed circuit boards (PCB).
2. Description of the Related Art
PCBs, which are required to be mounted one adjacent to another, but not necessarily, in a vertically arranged stack, need electrical connectors to electrically interconnect. As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, U.S. Pat. No. 5,967,800 issued to Bishop on Oct. 19, 1999 discloses an electrical connector 200 for connecting a first and a second PCBs (not shown). The electrical connector 200 includes an insulative base 4 and a plurality of conductive contacts 5 received in the base 4. The insulative base 4 defines two rows of channels 41 along opposite sides thereof and exposed to an upper surface 42 of the base 4. Each conductive contact 5 is received in a corresponding channel 41, comprises a solder tail 52 for soldering on the first PCB and a contact portion 51 extending beyond the upper surface 42 of the base 4 for electrically engaging with the second PCB.
However, when many contacts 5 are required to engage with the PCBs, a corresponding number of channels 41 is also required to be distributed along opposite sides of the base 4. This makes the base 4 very long, relatively weak and easy to be broken.
Hence, an electrical connector with an improved contact arrangement is needed to overcome the foregoing shortcomings.
A main object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector with an improved contact arrangement.
An electrical connector for interconnecting a first and a second printed circuit boards (PCBs) in accordance with the present invention includes an insulative base and a first and a second sets of contacts received in the base. The insulative base defines a plurality of first and second channels. The first and second channels respectively have first and second exposing portions. The first exposing portions and the second exposing portions are arranged in two rows. The first and second sets of contacts respectively have first and second contact portions extending beyond an upper surface of the base through the first and second exposing portions.